Digital marketing can give your startup a competitive edge. Begin your marketing skills with these free online courses.
A strong online presence is more important now than ever before for startups or small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), and digital marketing is what builds that presence.
If you’re a startup founder or small business owner, marketing can quickly become overwhelming. To help, we’ve pulled together 20 free digital marketing courses that actually teach you what you need to know.
Whether you’re a beginner looking to build a solid foundation or an experienced marketer seeking to refine your skills, these courses offer valuable insights, practical strategies, and a few hands-on exercises to help you grow visibility, customer engagement, and retention.
What you’ll learn:
- What are digital marketing courses?
- Key areas covered in digital marketing courses
- Benefits of taking a digital marketing course
- Summing up
- FAQs
Top 20 free digital marketing courses for startups
It’s time to dig into the best free digital marketing courses for your startup or SMB. Small business marketing requires constant learning and upskilling. Choose which free online courses on digital marketing work best for you — all from the comfort of your home, without spending a penny.
Here are the top free courses on six key components of digital marketing.
Search engine optimisation (SEO) courses
Organic marketing often attracts customers with high intent and has a brilliant ROI for businesses. These courses will help you understand the core concepts of SEO for your startup.
- “Explore Search Engine Optimisation” on Trailhead: In this course, you’ll learn the benefits, tips, and elements of SEO for B2C Commerce, along with how to implement this strategy for your business.
- “Google SEO Fundamentals” on Coursera: This course will teach you various SEO concepts, including keyword research, audience analysis, and site map creation.
- “SEO Course for Beginners” on Ahrefs: Learn about link-building strategies, search intent, and rank difficulty to enhance your startup’s online visibility.
Content marketing courses
70% of B2C marketers say content marketing is gaining more importance with every passing year. It’s a cost-effective strategy to build your brand awareness, establish thought leadership, and attract potential customers. These free courses will teach you all this and more.
4. “Content Strategy Development” on Trailhead: You’ll learn about setting up a strategy and conducting content audits, audience segmentation, and content evaluation.
5. “Storytelling for Content Marketing” on Trailhead: Learn how to find your angle and use different storytelling tools and techniques to share your authentic story.
6. “The Strategy of Content Marketing” on Coursera: This course teaches you how to create customer journeys and content for each stage of your customers’ journeys. You’ll also gain working knowledge of various strategies through hands-on assignments, peer reviews, and group discussions.
7. “Lead Generation for Marketers” on Trailhead: This course teaches you all about inbound marketing, lead nurturing campaigns, and how to generate leads using different content formats.
Social media marketing courses
93% of marketers use social media to engage with their customers and target audience. Learning to use social media and digital marketing can help you reap many benefits and reach a wider and diverse audience.
If you’re ready to dive into strategy, social media courses will provide a great starting point to build awareness online. Here are three of the best.
8. “Introduction to Social Media Marketing” on Coursera: You’ll identify various opportunities that social media offers and how to use them to scale your startup. Learn to create and measure key performance indicators (KPIs) and specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals for your social media campaigns.
9. “Social selling” on Trailhead: In this short course, you’ll learn how to implement social selling tools, reach your customers and target audience using social media, and turn clicks into conversions.
10. “Social Media Marketing Crash Course” on Semrush: This course offers hands-on learning in concepts like social media algorithms, influencer marketing, audience analysis, competitor tracking, and social media analytics.
Email marketing courses
90% of marketers use email marketing as an effective digital marketing channel. With these free courses, you’ll discover how to implement email marketing for your startup.
11. “Personalised email marketing” on Trailhead: This course provides a step-by-step guide to understanding your customer preferences, and how to create personalised, high-converting email content. Plus, it offers many examples on how to add emotion and make your emails mobile-responsive.
12. “Email Marketing Strategies” on Trailhead: This course teaches you how to craft email marketing campaigns that are legally compliant, drive more subscriptions, and improve deliverability and engagement.
13. “Think Outside the Inbox: Email Marketing” on Coursera: This beginner-friendly course will help you tackle the ABCs of email marketing. You’ll learn to write effective subject lines, set SMART goals for your campaigns, and execute them with ease.
Paid advertising courses
Research shows that supplementing organic marketing with remarketing campaigns boosts conversions by 40%. Strategic paid marketing offers immediate visibility with your target audience and helps you measure results more effectively. The following courses will help you get the hang of paid advertising.
14. “Campaign Optimisation for Marketers” on Trailhead: Discover how to create and optimise campaigns as your customers’ needs and preferences evolve. You’ll also learn how to plan your campaign budgets and set ad preferences.
15. “Artificial Intelligence for Marketing” on Trailhead: This course will teach you how artificial intelligence (AI) can help you execute multiple campaigns, personalise your marketing campaigns, and win customer loyalty.
16. “Google Ads for Beginners” on Coursera: In this course, you’ll learn how to set up a Google Ads dashboard, conduct keyword research, and create campaign structures. Plus, you’ll put what you’ve learned into practice through hands-on assignments.
17. “Mastering Growth” on Velocity Growth: You’ll learn all about customer acquisition and retention, along with the best practices for Facebook and Google Ads. This course also features guest speakers who share real-world strategies and insights.
Marketing made more impactful
Agentforce can run end-to-end marketing campaigns, and analyse vast amounts of data to do what’s best for your startup.
Analytics and reporting courses
Analytics and reporting tools can help you make well-informed decisions by showing you what’s working and what’s not. It also lets you track your ROI, understand customer behaviour, and optimise strategies for desired results. Check out these courses to find out how analytics can help you.
18. “Measure Your Marketing Impact” on Trailhead: This all-encompassing course covers everything you should know about marketing analytics, understanding what to measure and set benchmarks, and how you can take appropriate actions based on those insights.
19. “Understand Your Web Users with Google Analytics” on Trailhead: You’ll develop the necessary skills to set up Google Analytics and Adwords accounts and efficiently use audience, acquisition, and behavioural reports to generate more visitors.
20. “AI-Powered Performance Ads Certification” on Google: This course teaches you how to use AI to run and optimise ads. You’ll learn how AI automation can analyse Google Ads and align your ad strategy with business goals.
What are digital marketing courses?
Digital marketing courses are specific, tailored programs designed to help you squeeze every last bit of value out of your digital marketing efforts.
Why take the time to master online marketing as a small business? For a start, digital marketing levels the playing field for startups by providing the same tools and visibility as enterprises. It’s affordable compared to traditional marketing, which usually requires a bigger budget and more resources.
With 22% of startups failing due to poor marketing strategy, it’s important to build the knowledge and confidence to market your business effectively. Courses will help you bridge that gap and build experience that you’ll be able to apply to every aspect of your marketing outreach.
Depending on the course you choose, you’ll have the chance to learn everything from search engine optimisation (SEO) and analytics to content marketing, social media engagement, email marketing, and paid advertising. Plus, depending on your preferences, you’ll find options that let you study online or in person.
Start with SMB Basics
Key skills covered in digital marketing courses
Here’s a quick summary of the key areas covered in most digital marketing courses, from SEO and email marketing to analytics and paid advertising.
- Social media marketing: Discover how you can use social media to connect with your audience, get people talking about your brand, and drive traffic toward your site.
- Content marketing: Understand how to create engaging content that provides genuine value to your audience, helping you attract new consumers and retain your existing customers.
- Search engine optimisation (SEO): Discover a wide range of techniques designed to improve your ranking on search engine results pages – including keyword optimisation, link building, and local SEO.
- Email marketing: Find out how to build and roll out comprehensive email strategies that engage and connect with your audience at every stage of the sales funnel.
- Analytics and reporting: Uncover strategies you can use to measure the performance of your digital marketing campaigns, and how you can use these metrics to improve your strategy over time.
- Paid advertising: Understand how to get value from paid advertising strategies by targeting specific audiences on platforms like Google and Facebook.
- Digital marketing strategy: Master the overarching concepts that tie all of the different components of digital marketing together into one cohesive strategy.
Benefits of taking a digital marketing course
With 63% of all purchases beginning online, there’s never been a better time to learn how to market yourself digitally. The right course will teach you how to engage customers at every stage of the lifecycle, learn what influences conversions, and discover what’s working and what isn’t within your current strategy.
Let’s review the benefits of taking a digital marketing course:
- Master the marketing funnel: Learn how to build and optimise targeted customer journeys from awareness to conversion.
- Stretch your marketing spend: Digital marketing courses will help you get more out of every dollar by mastering low-cost marketing channels.
- Acquire skills in-house: As an extra bonus, you’ll also pick up all of your practical skills in-house, meaning you don’t need to pay for an agency.
- Maximise the customer experience (CX): A course for digital marketing will help you engage customers at every funnel stage, supporting retention.
- Greater agility: The more you understand the fundamentals of digital marketing, the easier it is to pivot in response to customer needs.
- Business growth: A strong knowledge of digital marketing sets the stage for future growth.
Digital marketing courses for startup growth
Running a startup requires constant learning and upskilling. Whether it’s digital marketing or other skill sets for growth, Trailhead, Salesforce’s free online learning platform, offers short courses that you can learn on the go. Its gamified format makes learning all the more exciting and rewarding.
If you’re looking for community-based learning, Trailblazer Communities is a great place to start. You can join discussions in forums and discover opportunities to network with entrepreneurs and growing businesses like yours. Explore the Moment Marketer Community for more resources on marketing.
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Try an easy-to-use CRM designed to help startups and small teams manage leads, connect with customers, and grow, all in one place. Free for 30 days.
FAQs
What is digital marketing?
Digital marketing covers all marketing that uses the internet to promote your business and connect with customers.
It includes:
- Making your website appear on Google (search engine optimisation or SEO)
- Posting on social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram
- Sending marketing emails to customers and leads
- Running paid ads on Google, Facebook, or other websites
- Creating content like blogs or videos that attract your audience
- Using tools to measure results and improve over time
It differs from more traditional marketing methods like flyers, TV ads, or billboards. It often has a higher ROI and the barrier to entry is lower, meaning it’s a great way for start ups to get started with marketing.
How do I choose the right digital marketing course?
Start by thinking about your business goals. Are you focused on building brand awareness, improving customer retention, or driving more sales? If you’re just getting started, look for online digital marketing courses that cover the essential types of digital marketing, including search engine optimisation (SEO), content creation, and email marketing. As your business grows, you can move into more advanced topics like paid search (PPC), data analytics, or marketing automation.
Do I need to commit a certain number of hours each week?
Not necessarily. Many free courses, like those you’ll find on Trailhead, can be completed at your own pace, wherever (and whenever) you like. This means you can adapt it to your own timeframe and study digital marketing whenever your schedule allows – perfect for those looking to become a marketing specialist with little time to commit to long-term studies.
What will a social media strategy course teach me?
You’ll learn how to build a clear plan for using social platforms like Instagram and Facebook to build your startup. This includes picking platforms that align with your audience and creating engaging content to capture and convert them. You’ll also master analytics and learn how to measure KPIs so you can grow as a social media manager and optimise your strategy as you go.
Do these courses provide a certificate in digital marketing?
Yes, many offer a digital marketing certificate or certification course upon completion. Platforms like Trailhead, Google, Duke University, and DMI offer recognised certificate programs that prove you’ve developed your digital marketing expertise.
Do I need to pay for a digital marketing course?
Not at all! If you’re a startup owner learning to market your own business, free online digital marketing courses are often more than enough. Platforms like Trailhead, Google, and Coursera offer high-quality training in areas like technical SEO, marketing email marketing, and social media advertising, all without any cost.
You don’t need a formal digital marketing certificate or certificate program to build effective campaigns. What matters most is gaining hands-on experience and applying what you learn directly to your business. Free courses are a great way to upskill, explore different digital marketing tools, and improve your strategy without adding pressure to your budget.
